It Was After Dark
by The WolvGambit
Summary: Monk is on the case trying to find out about a murder, who killed her, and what stuff was involved? What 'things' was she hiding? [minor MonkNatalie] [Complete]
1. Evil Deed

**_Well I needed to start writing on one of my favorite TV shows that I watch every Friday!_**

**_Disclaimer: I own none of the following characters...or liknesses thereof! Sorry! Don't sue!_**

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It Was After Dark...

Chapter 1...Evil Deed...

Staggered breathing could be heard through the dark hallway as she ran. Running for her life and casting into the shadows...a man following closely behind as she runs into the closet and shuts the door quietly. She hears his voice, deep and ragged, bellowing through the walls and echoing through each room.

"Where are ya tramp? HUH! You thought you could cheat me didn'tcha? Thought you could run?" His voice was steady, as she heard her heart rate picked up and slight tremors ran through her thin frame. "Where'd ya hide it huh? I wanna know!"

She tried to stop herself from breathing so hard...but as she heard him approach the door it was hard. She heard him knock twice and lean his weight as the door creaked. "I know you're in there...come to daddy sweetie."

He opens the door violently and looks down in the mess of trinkets and clothes and pulls out her thin frame roughly causing her to cringe at the contact. "Let go!" She screamed. "Let go!"

"Shut up!" He then threw her into the wall. "Just shut up! You thought that you'd get away. Well I'm here to stop that. Where'd you hide it?" He struck her across the face with the back of his hand...his ring cutting her slightly, drawing blood across her pale cheek. Tears combined with it...the saltiness making it sting.

"I didn't do anything! Leave me alone!" She kicked his groin and he doubled over in pain...tripping her with his arm as she tried to run.

"You ain' gettin' away that easy, come back here!" He groaned and struggled to pull himself upright dragging her by her foot into the next room. He threw her against another wall and drew a gun from his pocket. "Now you're going to tell me or I'll shoot you and find it myself."

"I didn't do anything." She sobbed and tried to push him off. "Please leave me alone."

"Wrong answer!" He shoved her to the floor and kicked her side repetitively. Then he picked her up by her hair and threw her against the side table breaking a lamp in the process. Glass flew everywhere and some struck him across the arm, not that he seemed to notice. Some pieces flew about and cut her across the face, down the arms, and down her legs. He then picked her up and threw her against the table, breaking it as she crashed through.

After that he picked up his gun again and stepped towards her bleeding frame and leveled the gun at her head. "Looks like you just made things difficult for yourself." He then aimed and fired.

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Monk had just woke up and gotten dressed. He then went to the kitchen to find Natalie already putting groceries away for him. "Good morning Mr. Monk. How are you."

"Okay." He commented and shrugged his shoulders a little bit. He then walked over to the cabinet where she had just finished putting some spices in and realigned them by size. "Could be better...but okay."

"Have you been getting enough sleep lately Mr. Monk?"

"Off and on I guess." He shrugged again and went to the fridge to fix more groceries. "How's Julie been?"

"She's been great. Schools been going well." She smiled and walked towards the fridge handing him more things to organize. After the food was put away her cell phone began to ring.

"Hello?"

Slight pause.

"Oh hi Captain...what can I do for you."

Long Pause

"Okay we'll be there."

She shut the phone and turned to Adrian. "That was the Captain...he needs to see us over at the office...we have a case."

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After a brief meeting at the office they were then going to the old house at the corner of Dragin Street.

"They said that she died of a gunshot wound to the chest." Stottlemyer stated. "She was only 20, her name was Elizabeth Brock."

Monk looked around the crime scene which extended from the back hallway to the front living room where the body had been moved. He looked to the side and saw a table with blood on it but didn't see what he was looking for. "There was a lamp here..."

"Huh?" Stottlemyer turned confused.

"See the dust ring? Obviously a circle shape wide enough to be considered a lamp. The glass patterns indicate that there was some sort of struggle and judging by this here..." He trailed off picking up a metal end with his handkerchief. "It was a lamp."

They looked down at the end of a light bulb and then it was placed in an evidence bag. He continued to walk around the room..." Did anyone know her personally?"

"Just a few people Monk. She wasn't very social. Her father said that she had an enormous amount of things that she wanted to keep hidden. Apparently, whoever it was that was here, knew about these 'things' and wanted to be told where they were."

"She was thrown through this table right?"

"Yeah."

"Judging by the angle that this table was broken and the amount of blood here." He gestured to the splintered wood. "I'd say that she might have been dead long before she got shot."

Disher walks up behind the Captain. "What's up?"

"Was she close to anyone else besides her immediate family?"

"There was a boyfriend, I think her father mentioned. And some groupies at a club, mostly guys. That was about it. Other than her business advisors."

"Business advisors?" Monk asked puzzled.

"She worked for an independent business. But they really didn't know much about her 'things'. Her father could only tell us that it was important documents and some sort of money deal." Disher stated. "Other things lead to rare collections and things that..."

"What sort of rare things?"

"We don't know."

"I'd like to talk to this boyfriend first." Monk stated talking to Stottlemyer.

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**_End chapter one! Dramatic pause! Read and Review!_**


	2. Pulling Pieces

**_New chapter, same ol' Disclaimer: I own no characters! Okay! Don't sue!_**

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Chapter 2...Pulling Pieces...

Shortly after the crime scene investigation, Monk had found several more clues but no strong leads on who the suspect might be. So far he had found that there had been a struggle...and she had died before she was shot. But, whoever was after her, surely knew about what 'things' she was hiding. Finally they came to the apartment complex of her boyfriend and that's when the questioning began.

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"So, did Elizabeth tell you anything about her business? Or something she was hiding?" Monk asked as he looked around the room straightening things.

"Lizzy wasn't really the sharing type on her business. She told me that the office work stayed at the office. All I know is she was in it pretty deep." He stated.

"So, you don't really know anything about her work?"

"The only thing she shared with me was something about a big merger...she didn't mention the companies or how much money was involved. All she told me was it was important." He sighed. "One of her 'groupies' at the club told me that she was in this merger deep...one of the companies was going to go belly up if they didn't pull through with the money. Something about selling out things that she owned to pay off the merger."

"Did she ever mention to you about collecting valuable items?" Disher stated from behind Natalie.

"No, I never heard of her having a collection of anything. She wanted me to be safe so she kept me in the loop a lot about her job and the details of her very personal life. I don't know what she did in her spare time...honestly." He sighed. "Sometimes I wonder why I dated her...she was so secretive. But she was also caring and thoughtful. I don't know why anyone would want to harm her."

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"Well that was a dead end." Stottlemyer stated as they exited the complex.

"Not really." Monk continued. "We managed to get a bit of information...about a company merger...and some of her 'groupies', as he put it...knew some things...we even managed to get a club name out of him."

"True." Disher commented from behind. "Club's name is **Nightwing**small club, nothing too special."

"Club...Right. Um, here's the thing. I don't do loud music and crowds." Monk stated behind Natalie.

"Mr. Monk, you'll be okay." She turned to face him. "I'll be with you."

Monk nodded. "I..I..I'll try."

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The club, surprisingly, isn't very packed...they found out on their way in that it was an exclusive club...it belonged to a couple of companies that had joined over the years. Apparently, Elizabeth was working for one of the companies in the merger to form the club. The rough estimate was at least 4.5 million alone for the club in it's best condition. Monk was surprised that the club wasn't packed...he wasn't surprised, however, about the loud music as he stayed very close to Natalie.

"Hello..." The Captain started. "Are you the people who knew Elizabeth Brock?"

They all nodded, the one with brown hair answered first. "Yeah we heard 'bout what happened. She got herself mixed up deep in company mergers. But seriously dudes, I don't get why they'd wanna kill her. I mean she did a lot for the company."

"So, you think that it was an inside job?" Adrian commented.

"Duh!" Said the brunette, she had a lip ring and an eyebrow ring...Monk held a hand to his mouth just a little and then let it drop. "It had to be an inside job...She didn't talk to us much about it, but a company was about to go belly up, the one merger she was working on had something to due with insurance."

"Insurance?" Disher asked. "What type of insurance?"

"We told her that anything that had to do with insurance, was probably bad mojo." Said the redhead. "Anything for a little coin in the company pocket."

"Did she ever happen to mention anything about a collection of rare items?" Monk asked.

"No, I don't think so." The brunette responded. "She didn't say anything to us anyhow...she always managed to keep her personal life very personal. She didn't even tell Randy."

"Yeah, Randy told us the same thing...he didn't even know about her business." Adrian stated.

"That's very true." Said the brown haired woman. "She was very secretive...but she confined in us because her business life was a drag."

"What company do you belong to?"

"A partner company that helped create this club. We met at the grand opening and automatically hit it of."

Stottlemyer's cell phone rang at that moment. "Stottlemyer...talk to me."

Long drawn out pause.

"Really? Where'd you find it?"

Long pause.

"Alright we'll meet you there."

He shut the phone off and turned to Disher and Monk. "That was the coroner...he confirmed that she was dead even before the gun shot. It was also the tech...we've got the murder weapon...it was found in a storm drain just a few miles away from her house."

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**_Another day another chapter! here you go!_**


	3. A Weapon, A Motive, Other Groupies Oh My

**_Wow I'm on a role...for all of those who may be reading...please be kind and review...I'd like to know if this story is going well and I should continue. I love feed back from my reviewers. Please no flames._**

**_Disclaimer: I own no characters or ideas for them. Just writing this fiction for the fun of it...enjoy!_**

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Chapter 3...A Weapon, A Motive, and Other Groupies, Oh My

Monk, Stottlemyer, Disher, and Teeger all arrived at the tech lab to see the results on the gun a group squad had found in the storm drain a few hours earlier. They compared the left over slugs to the ones found at the crime scene and they were a match. They even recovered some finger prints of the side of the gun, and half at the barrel.

"Well we've pointed the bullets at a .45 weapon caliber. The slugs that were found in the body match the ones that were in the gun. Whoever ditched the weapon was really careless about taking out the extra bullets." Stottlemyer said reading the report.

"So, it was like...he was in a hurry to find something." Monk stated.

"Either that, or he just was careless." Stated Disher.

"Also some of the prints on the gun matched some at the crime scene. They belong to somebody who works at a partner company. Though, it says that he died this past year." A tech said from behind. "It's odd..."

"It's fraud." Natalie barged in.

"Yeah, it is. I checked some old news clippings. The name popped up in the obituaries." Said the tech.

"So it's an inside job, and they're using dead peoples names as aliases. Interesting." Adrian said looking at Stottlemyer.

"What did you pull up on the same name from the company?" Asked Disher.

"A lotta insurance money. Turns out this guy was obviously a criminal. His real name isn't mentioned in any of these cases. He burned down several places just to collect money...strange thing is, he was never convicted because his name implied that he was dead." The tech responded. "Also we ran the same name's in the computer, the names always came up twice. Once for a court case, and another time for the Obituaries."

"This day just keeps getting better and better. Let's go talk to some partner companies."

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VALENSE CORP. INSURANCE...612 Building

"Insurance...just like the guy to work at a company like this." Leland scoffed. "Shall we?"

The building was full of people, investors, bankers from pending and partnered companies and it was making Adrian feel a little...sick. "Natalie...I'm not ... feeling ... too well..."

"Mr. Monk what's wrong?"

"Crowds..." He trailed off.

"It's okay...calm down." She said rubbing a hand on his back. "Just breathe."

"I can't!" He sighed. "I'm claustrophobic."

"It's okay Mr. Monk...Just breathe okay. You're going to be fine." Natalie rubbed his back again and they made it into a quiet conference room."

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"Hello...I'm Captain Stottlemyer, this is Lieutenant Disher, and Adrian Monk." He stated as he and Disher flashed their badges. "We understand that you're the other 'groupies' that used to hang out with the deceased in question, Elizabeth Brock."

"Aye mate...that little sheila. She often got herself into a whole mess a trouble." Said the Australian. "My names Jake blokes." (Black hair)

"I heard that the traidin' business went bad on her didn' it. I'm Arnold." He was more of a country man. (Blond)

"I'm Samuel. She told us of her ventures, if that's what you mean." The intellectual. (Brown)

"Did you know anything about what she was hiding?"

"Oy knew a lotta stuff...actually we all did. She neva kept us in tha dark about anythin'. She was workin' on a big merger in this company...but tha things she was hidin' had ta do with a double life."

"Double life?"

"Trading business. It was not uncommon for her to get into trouble. She traded with this company and many others. Some of the paintings you see on the walls...are rare artifacts. She doesn't ask, we don't ask...they're just purchased or traded and then they're brought into the office. As far as we know...her job wasn't illegal."

"Yeah, it may not have been illegal. But it was sure as heck somethin' strange. We heard a fight takin' place a few nights ago."

"This was before the murder?" Monk asked.

"Yeah, it was. They were arguing about a piece that she refused to sell...three pieces to be exact. " Said Samuel. "He threatened her...he said they were valuable and that someone wanted to buy them...it was another merger...an art company."

"Aye when she tol' him that they weren' fo' sale. He got all pissed off an' started makin' threats. Oy think her bigges' mistake was when she called his bluff." Jake added. "We knew somethin' big was gonna go down. Bad thin' was ... we didn' know where the poor sheila lived."

"Did they guy go by the name of Alan Blackman, by any chance."

"Yep that's the bloke." Jake stated. "Rather nasty fella. Don' wanna get on his bad side that's fo' sure."

"Thanks gentlemen. That'll be all." Stottlemyer concluded.

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"Well...we have a weapon, and a motive. But Our suspects true identity remains to be found out." Said Monk as they left the building.

"Yeah, this is going to be a tough one to crack Monk...even for you." Stottlemyer stated.

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**_Thanks to every one that's reading...Please review!_**


	4. A Mystery Man Undone

**_Another Day, Another Chapter, Thanks to those of you reviewing!_**

**_Disclaimer: I Own No Characters, they belong to their respective owners. Making no profit!_**

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Chapter 4...A Mystery Man Undone...

Monk and the others were all hanging around at the police station while a tech was checking on some finger prints to see if a criminal record could be put together. It was about an hour later before any results were found.

"Well, the tech just gave me this folder and the results are in." Stottlemyer commented. "It says here that his real name is Adam Burns and he's been in jail three times for insurance fraud. Two murders he got released on a technicality."

"Wasn't he in the big case in 93'?" Asked Monk. "I remember hearing something about it on the news."

"Yeah, fraud of 93'...big case. Burned down one of the main buildings he owned. Collected the insurance money...was never convicted."

"Wait...he was under an alias..." Adrian said. "I know something...Every time he was convicted...he changed his name. He's been at about 6 neighboring companies. Each time they thought he was dead...because...the names he picked didn't have any pictures to follow them...so without the pictures...they thought he was dead."

"And while they think he's dead...they're closing cases and he's picking up insurance money under a different alias and moving to another company." Disher chimed in.

"Do we have an address?" Monk asked.

"Yeah...a newer company...where her male groupies were."

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"Alan Blackman..." Disher started. "Is he here?"

"Yes," Answered the front desk clerk. "But he's in a meeting."

"That's okay, PD." Said Stottlemyer, showing his badge. "We have to talk."

They busted in on Blackman and took him into custody...That's when Monk saw three new paintings that he'd never seen before...he'd solved the case.

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Meanwhile Adrian and Natalie were at his house talking. He was being himself as usual.

"Why didn't you go back to the office with them?" She asked.

"Because...the office was crowded. I couldn't do it again. Besides Natalie...a lot of people were sick..." Monk trailed off.

"You've been down here lately...what's wrong?"

He sighed. "It's Trudy's birthday..." He then hung his head low and sniffled.

"Sorry..."

"It's..It's okay." He looked down at his shoes.

Natalie hugged him. "I'm here to talk, if you need to."

He didn't flinch away, to her surprise...just sat there. "I know."

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**_Well I can't just give you the summation now, can I? Sorry! Cliff Hanger..._**


	5. Solved

**_Okay last chappie enjoy!_**

**_Disclaimer: I own no characters...sorry! they belong to their respective owners._**

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Chapter 5.. Solved

Monk and Natalie were on their way to the police station to confront Adam Burns.

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In the interrogation room, Monk was just giving his summation of the case at hand.

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"It all started in the big case of 93'. You had found the perfect way to get away with your heists on the big insurance companies. You'd use a name you recently found in the obituaries that didn't have a picture so that they'd assume you died...and you'd make sure to do these crimes when you'd found a recent date. They all think you're dead. It was the perfect crime. But this time you literally made errors. You were trading some antique pieces with Elizabeth Brock. She was telling you that the three pieces in your office weren't for sale. I noticed that all the pieces you had were of Chinese and Japanese culture. She had given you the other pieces, what was so popular about these? You had just created another account with the firm and wanted the pieces. Why you were collecting the pieces you decided to find another alias, a recent one...Alan Blackman...another no picture...coincidence I think not. You killed her in her own home. She hid in the closet when you found her and drug her out. She screamed and there was a struggle, you needed those pieces to collect a bigger account. So you fought with her, and you killed her. We found the gun, your prints were on it and they were also found in various places around her house. Your greed got the better of you...you killed her for money."

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"So what if I did." Adam responded.

"That means hard time buster...you're under arrest for six counts fraud and the murder of Elizabeth Brock...let's go!" Stottlemyer said cuffing him. He read him his rights as they walked out.

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"So how you holding up Mr. Monk." Natalie asked when they were outside the police station.

"I'm doing better, I guess."

"Still Trudy?"

He simply nodded. "I'd like to be with her."

She nodded then. "I understand. Lead the way Mr. Monk."

"Adrian. Just Adrian."

"Alright Adrian."

"And Natalie...Thanks." He smiled weakly.

"No problem." She hugged him again and he hugged back. "I'm always here if you need me."

"I know, thanks."

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**_Ah the end. Wonderful mystery huh? Well if you want me to write another Monk story...email or review me! I'd be happy to write another. Until then, WolvGambit out!_**

**_Thanks to all readers and reviewers!_**


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